AS I write this, the Asian Development Bank has announced that the price of food and its looming shortage will affect millions of people in Asia. This has been echoed by the United Nations which said that the present economic model cannot sustain life.

The planet and its biodiversity are the source of all life. Forests and oceans replenish the Earth’s atmosphere and are critical ecosystems that no one can replace.

Through the years, our planet has been logged and mined. In the last 50 years, we  have stripped our resources to the edge.

Our forests continue to be logged and our mountains mined. The ecological balance is in danger of exploding. And the damage may be permanent.

This summer has been a clear testament that climate change and all its manifestations are upon us. The heat is unbearable. Our agriculture is burnt by the scourging heat. Our rivers have run dry and yes the planet is sizzling. If it were to affect humans of which it has especially the old, sickly and the young, then what more the smallest cell-like species that are very fragile and vulnerable. More species have gone extinct. Amphibians  are one of the first to be affected and many more species have gone extinct.

The World Bank has announced funding for the Philippines to adapt to climate-related catastrophes and calamities. Just like Typhoon Ondoy and similar disasters. There will no doubt be more fierce and ravaging typhoons and calamities. Look at the record howlers and tornados in the United States and the floods in China and the heat in parts of Asia.

The World Bank should take the lead to abate and mitigate the problems caused by climate change.

The price of food has reached record highs. It will continue to climb as commodities have become basic to survival and the global supplies of rice and corn will not be able to meet the human demand. The ethanol industry has cornered 40 percent of all U.S. corn.

One cannot stop food to flow to human needs in favor of automotive luxury.

The economic decisions have been so narrow as they continue to develop at a faster pace in the light of peak of oil and food.

I am worried that the time for peak food and oil are near and their consequences are disastrous.

Our world leaders must address the real problems causing climate change and not just go into the best carbon development mechanism and trade.

Let us reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the planet to 350 ppm needed to sustain life.

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(Antonio M. Claparols is President of the Ecological Society of the Philippines, IUCN- Member IUCN-CEESP. E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; http//www.esp.org.ph)